June - an explosion of colours

With this collage I participate both in Mosaic Monday at Judith's Lavender Cottage

and

in Susanna's Monthly collage meme at Pieni Lintu.

Have a lovely July!

5 + 5

For Amy's Five on Friday, five of my favourite plants blooming now:

Lupinus regalis

Geranium macrorrhizum 'Spessart'

Geranium sylvaticum

Aquilegia vulgaris

Syringa vulcaris

♥

Only one photo of lupins? No, that won't do... They have just started to flower and merit a set of five photos of their own. :)

I'll come to visit you as soon as I can.

Have a lovely weekend!

Tiny

The lupins are finally starting to bloom. Admiring them, I noticed an insect I hadn't seen for some years... a ladybird!

I was so pleased that I decided to publish my second post today and to participate in Our Beautiful World. This week's theme is "tiny".

Participating also in Wordless Wednesday (on Tuesday).

Ode to geraniums... and lilacs

As adults, we sometimes notice that things are much smaller than they seemed when we were children. However, I could swear that the wood cranesbills (Geranium sylvaticum) have more and bigger flowers now than in my childhood... :)

Geraniums, 

with deep purple eyes

Scan avidly 

the Springtime skies

As if despite 

their diminutive size

That they could 

from Mother Nature prize

…Eternal Springs and endless lives…

                                  David Whalen

The lilacs are starting to bloom.

I wish I could share with you also something more than only photos...  The air is so lovely, warm, calm, rather humid, and very, very fragrant.

You may have noticed that I'm very much in love with our

Begonia × tuberhybrida (Pendula Group).

With this collage, I participate in 

Mosaic Monday #47.

Have a lovely new week!

Flowers and tea

There's a bunch of lilies-of-the-valley in a vase in front of me, and the fragrance is almost overwhelming...

The weather continues to be cool (ca. 12 ºC; 53.6 ºF) and many plants are late to leaf out here.  This is how the leaves of our Parthenocissus inserta look like...

However, I decided to have an afternoon tea, even if hasty, on a small terrace,

 to be finally able to join Judith at Lavender Cottage 

for Tea and Garden Journaling on Thursday.

The cups (THUN flower) might be for coffee...

... but they were good for tea as well.

Sitting on the terrace, we see some plants blooming. Million Bells is one of my favorite flowering plants. It looks pretty even in orange. ;)

You have already seen this beautiful begonia, in my previous post:

 There's fresh new green everywhere...

After two days we will celebrate Midsummer, but one of its symbols, Rosa spinosissima 'Plena', is not blooming yet. With this photo (from a previous year), I wish you all a lovely Midsummer!

Kaunista juhannusta!

A creamy white beauty

Participating in Amy's lovely Five on Friday,

five photos of my Begonia × tuberhybrida (Pendula Group):

Have a lovely weekend!

Wild flowers

On the 14th of June, the name day of Kielo (Finnish for "lily-of-the-valley"), we celebrate the annual Wildflower Day.  A number of free flower walks, for example, are organized on the day.

The wildflowers of these photos bloom here from June or July onwards. (The photos are from previous years.)

On Muusa's lovely blog, Muusan elokuu, you can find other beautiful photos of Finnish wildflowers. Definitely worth visiting! 

Yhteispohjoismaista Luonnonkukkien päivää vietetään 14.6.  Päivän tavoitteena on kasvituntemuksen ja -harrastuksen edistäminen sekä yhteisten luontokokemusten tarjoaminen mahdollisimman monelle. Tänä vuonna teemalajina on tupasvilla.

Luonnonkukkien päivänä järjestetään kukkaretkiä ympäri maata. Retket ovat 2–3 tunnin mittaisia, maksuttomia ja avoimia kaikille kiinnostuneille. Lisätietoja: Suomen luonnonsuojeluliitto, Marja Haatanen, puh. 044 559 9755, luonnonkukat@sll.fi

Geum rivale

Vicia cracca

Geranium sylvaticum

Participating, of course, in

Mosaic Monday

as well as in

I Heart Macro

Have a lovely (wildflower) day!